Mohammad Hafeez congratulates India on World No. 1 Test ranking

36-year old Pakistan opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez has congratulated India on securing the World number one Test match status. India laid a claim to the world ranking following a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand in the recently concluded Test series.

Congratulation to Team India being NO1 team in ICC Test ranking ???.. Well done @imVkohli & all his players 2 achieve this GLORY..? ???

— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) October 11, 2016

The New Zealand batting unit collapsed towards the end of the innings as the match also concluded on the fourth day of the Indore Test match. This was also incidentally the first Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.

The Indians had a chance earlier in the Test series against the West Indies to stake a claim to the world ranking. However, wet outfields and rain was all that stood in their way as their cross-country rivals Pakistan swooped in and grabbed the world ranking courtesy of their impressive 2-2 draw against England in the Test series earlier last month.

Virat Kohli and his band of merry men impressed with some fantastic cricketing acumen as they brushed the visiting Kiwis aside 3-0. Kohli himself was impressive in the end of the series where he smashed a magnificent 211 in the first innings in what otherwise turned out to be a terribly difficult time for the Indian skipper.

Also read – Did Virat Kohli give a reply to Harbhajan Singh in the post-match chat?

Ravichandran Ashwin otherwise was supremely impressive as he cam up trumps with the ball by becoming the leading wicket-taker in the series. Moreover, the fact of the matter remained that he became the fastest Indian to 200 wickets in Test matches.

It was however, the final Test where Ashwin really made it count with some impressive bowling where he claimed 13 wickets in the match. This also included some impressive figures of 7/59 in the final innings of the series.

Mohammad Hafeez had earlier been dropped from the ODI side to make way for the likes of Sharjeel Kahn and Babar Azam. While one cannot lay claim to the fact that this was the reason for Pakistan’s resurgence in the ODI scheme of things, but one can most definitely agree that things are much better for Pakistan than they were.

Also read – India v New Zealand, 3rd Test – Statistical Highlights